Better Look Before You Leap

Better Look Before You Leap 

Young irreplaceable Americans, getting a good education is a terrific way to serve your country. Before you pass up college to join the military, look around and tell me how many SUPPORT THE TROOPS bumper stickers and YELLOW RIBBONS you see now. Give me the name of just one politician or officer who has been convicted of war crimes like our young enlisted soldiers have. Allow me to save you some time; no politician or officer has been convicted. Not one! Just young men and women like you are having to shoulder all the blame for the ungodly deeds of our country. This makes it clear that while you are being asked to put your life on the line, the rest of us are putting our jobs before God and country, and our young men and women in uniform. It should not be that way, and it does not have to be; but you are the ones who will have to change it. I suggest that you JUST SAY NO to the military-industrial complex.

In my opinion, people like John McCain and me are not heroes. We flew into a country and killed people who were not attacking the United States. To show you what type of people the Vietnamese are, Americans are being welcomed and cared for in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City better than they are in many American cities.

I am most grateful for those Moms, Dads and especially the high schoolers who have helped spread this message. As a father of two put it, “When our young people make the decision to join the military, I want them to do so with the facts, not just the propaganda that the war for profit gang are spreading with our tax dollars.”

What is my background? I served in Vietnam as a pilot (1968-69). I was shot down twice and was awarded the Air Medal and Distinguished Flying Cross. In 1992 I ran for a seat in the US Senate. I'm a registered Eisenhower Republican and, remembering what these new Republicans did to Max Cleland and tried to do to John Murtha, I believe it is time they harvested this crop of thorns they have so mercilessly sown. Even though I have spent every dime I could get my hands on since 1976 campaigning against the Bush dynasty, I do sincerely apologize for George W. Bush, the worst president in the history of this country. And I pray that after he's gone, our country will once again make understanding, principles, and character its first line of defense, because as we now know, jet fighters and aircraft carriers are no match for hatred.